Finance has an account with Amalgamated Bank that money is being collected into, and sponsored for a tax-free exempt status at that allows it to collect funds electronically. The Finance group works fairly transparently and at the behest of the General Assembly, and finances are distributed to Working Groups via introduction of a financing request to the GA to vote on. Presently the only other way to get money out of Finance is to purchase something at the behest of a Working Group and present a receipt to them; which group you are with, what you bought, etc. is taken down before the money is paid out from the collected funds. Whether there is a difference between Occupy Wall Street and the General Assembly is a distinction without a difference at this point, I think, as far as holding monies is concerned, and as far as I understand people are working very hard to be excellent in this regards, as the Finance group is carefully documenting all financial input and output according to something called Generally Accepted Accounting Principals or GAAP, which is the proper way to do it.

If you have a need that can be accomodated by budgeted funds, you simply have to get that request on-stack at the GA and have it pass.

If services such as livestream, webspace, and equipment are being purchased we need to know where the money came from. Is the GA fund used by the GA in accordance to the concensus of the people? Who controls the money? when there are no more people in Zucotti park, does the GA retain all of that money? Or, does OWS have an account that it is using? If we in here are at all unclear I can only imagine that there are people outside the movement scrutinizing and wondering as well.

I'd like to echo this sentiment. Not that what we're doing is not of interest to those in power, but that we have nothing to hide. On the contrary, we are law enforcement, in the truest sense of the term. While getting off corporate networks is great, I would disagree with the sentiment that privacy of any kind is needed with regards to our strategies, intentions, and actions. (care should be taken for identities of people who live in areas where they could be abducted by authorities, etc, but assuming the USA in 2011 here).

On the contrary, we should be walking the walk with regards to publishing as much as possible about everything we are doing. This is crucial. We have NOTHING to hide, and open source isn't just a means, it's the objective. It is what can create an alternative model of governance, so let's start now. Disclose everything.felipe

For the promotion of FLO initiatives, we should move off Google applications, but for privacy/security concerns we have nothing to hide, and couldn't if we wanted to. The US government has this thing called the FBI and another called the Patriot Act.